On Earth. India. Dark Haven Fortress.
Outside the previous space passage that once led to the Abode of the Sky.
Ankit stood at the center.
Third Eye Clone, Sacral Clone, Root Clone.
Ankit's family.
The disciples.
The disciples' families.
All of them were there—silent, shaken, serious. The passage behind them had been severed, destroyed by Ankit himself. Nothing remained of the link to the fortress.
They wanted to know.
Who had attacked?
Who was so powerful that even their master—Ankit—could not contend with them?
Would they attack again?
The question burned in every mind, but no one spoke it aloud. The weight of what had just happened pressed down on them like gravity itself. The fortress—home, sanctuary, unbreakable—was gone. Erased. Not even rubble. Not even memory.
Only Sanya stepped forward.
She had been controlling the fortress. She had initiated the final jump. Now guilt choked her. Tears brimmed in her eyes, but she held them back.
She moved to Ankit, voice trembling.
"Sorry… sorry… brother… it's my fault… I shouldn't have gone outside the solar system without asking you… I am really, really sorry…"
Rudra followed immediately behind her, head bowed.
"Brother… I am also sorry. I should have at least… informed you. I am really… sorry."
Seeing their children like this, Kamal and Neelam began to move forward too. They felt the same guilt—the responsibility of parents who should have stayed with them, guided them, stopped them.
But Ankit raised a hand.
He stopped them all.
His voice was quiet, steady.
"It's nobody's fault. Even I didn't expect something like this to happen. Now… now, don't worry. Nobody was hurt."
He stepped closer to Sanya and Rudra. Gently, he placed a hand on each of their heads—patting softly, the same way he used to when they were small.
Sanya's shoulders shook once.
Rudra exhaled a shaky breath.
Slowly, the tension in them eased. The tears that had threatened to fall were held back. The fear loosened its grip.
After some time, Sanya and Rudra relaxed.
They looked up at Ankit—still guilty, but no longer drowning in it.
The others watched in silence.
The question still hung unspoken.
Who… or what… had done this?
The question hung in the air like smoke after a fire—thick, silent, impossible to ignore.
Just then, Xinxuan stepped forward, voice quiet but steady.
"Master… who had attacked? Is it an alien… or… another cultivator like you?"
The words landed.
Every head turned.
Every ear perked.
Every breath held.
Ankit's clones didn't know either. They hadn't yet connected to Ankit's memories. So even they were curious, eyes fixed on their original self.
Third Eye Clone, in particular, felt it most keenly.
He had always used his Divine Sage profession to peer into the future—reducing risks, mapping uncertainties, seeing threads before they snapped. He had predicted many things: dangers threatening him or his family, hidden threats on Earth, even subtle shifts in essence flow. But this?
Nothing.
Not a single ripple. Not a whisper. Not even the faintest premonition.
And that terrified him more than the attack itself.
Now he realised.
Previously—when ankit had divined that the entire solar system held not even a single particle of essence flow, and yet his senses met only blank silence beyond its boundary—his foresight had not failed due to distance, nor due to any deficiency in his mastery of the Divine Sage profession.
It failed because the space outside the solar system was dangerous… and simply beyond his current level.
His command of Divine Sage was strong—refined and reliable within his realm. But whatever had shredded the fortress's vyuhas like paper existed on an entirely different scale. A presence his current cultivation could not reach, could not touch, could not even begin to comprehend.
Anything involving that outer space was now confirmed unpredictable. Not because of reach or skill, but because the space itself was perilous—far more perilous than he had ever imagined. His foresight slid off it like water on glass. It simply could not grasp what lay there.
The solar system had been a cradle.
A sheltered, contained domain where predictions held true and dangers stayed within measurable bounds.
Outside… it was something else entirely.
On the other hand, when Ankit heard Xinxuan's question, he paused for a moment, eyes distant as if looking through the false sky above them.
Then he spoke, voice calm but carrying the weight of truth.
"Those things are not alive. They weren't even creatures. They were… elements."
He looked around at the faces—his family, the disciples, the clones—all waiting.
"You remember I told you about fire, water, space elements, right? Those forces that attacked the fortress were those elements… but chaotic. They don't have a place to stay. They just wander around… drifting without direction."
He exhaled slowly.
"And they are very powerful—far more powerful than the elements on Earth or inside the solar system. The same element inside our solar system and outside has a thousandfold difference in strength. Quality. Quantity. Everything."
A murmur rippled through the group.
Ankit continued.
"There is a good thing. It means comprehending those elements will be easier than inside the solar system. Because they are so powerful, they provide deeper insight. Deeper understanding."
"But the bad thing…" His voice lowered. "Those elements are mixed up. So comprehension is interfered with—other elements clash, pull, distort. And the second problem is that they attack violently. You should remember the fortress destruction. I think… by now, the fortress has been completely destroyed."
The courtyard fell silent.